Generally, most mobile telephones and other similar electronic devices include a GPS receiver that receives global positioning system signals in order to determine the geographic location of the telephone. A GPS receiver typically provides very accurate latitude and longitude information allowing the mobile telephone to calculate where it is located and to possibly display this information to a user or transmit that information to other users.
Needless to say, a host of smartphone applications have been developed that not only allow the holder of the smartphone to identify his or her location, but also allow another user to monitor the location of the holder of the smartphone. For example, applications exist that allow a parent or other individual to track the location of a child through the child's smart phone. Notwithstanding the fact that these applications are actually tracking the location of the smartphone, and not necessarily the child, these applications can be configured to allow a parent with a smartphone to monitor: the child's location at a particular time, whether or not there has been movement for a period of time, whether or not the child is approaching or leaving a particular location, speed of travel, etc.
Of particular interest are security applications that allow a parent to configure software on his or her smartphone that use predefined rules in order to determine whether or not the child is within the permitted area at a particular time. For example, a parent may configure an application on his or her smart phone to signal an alert if the child (or rather, the child's smart phone) leaves the geographic boundary of the child's school during normal school hours. Or, the parent may configure an alert to be generated if the child enters a particular geographic area (e.g., the shopping mall) at any time. Although more and more of these security applications are being developed, most all use complex configurations and numerous predefined rules in order to allow the application to detect if an alert should be generated. The application on the parent smartphone then constantly monitors the location of the child's smart phone.
While these applications can be helpful, they require configuration and definition of rules, and can be inflexible. Once a parent defines a geographic location and a particular time period, an alert will be generated if this rule is violated, even if the child is otherwise safe. Requiring the parent to constantly update the rules of the application can be more trouble than it is worth, often meaning that the application will go unused.
Accordingly, given the deficiencies in prior art approaches to monitoring the location of an individual carrying a mobile device, improved techniques are desired.